Humane Studies Fellowships and Mercatus Center fellowships

For Humane Studies fellowships, the deadline is January 31st, 2014. “The Humane Studies Fellowship can provide grants for up to $15,000.00 in addition to opening the door to participation in a number of the Institute for Humane Studies’ programs. The code “HSFFeeWaiver” can be used to waive the application fee up until the final deadline.”

The Mercatus PhD Fellowship is a three-year, competitive, full-time fellowship program for students who are pursuing a doctoral degree in economics at George Mason University. It includes full tuition support, a stipend, and experience as a research assistant. It is a total award of up to $120,000 over three years. The application deadline is February 1, 2014.

The MA Fellowship is a two-year, competitive, full-time fellowship program for students pursuing a master’s degree in economics at George Mason University, public policy emphasis, application deadline is March 1, 2014.

The Adam Smith Fellowship is a one-year, competitive fellowship for graduate students attending PhD programs at any university, in a variety of fields, including economics, philosophy, political science, and sociology. Smith Fellows receive a stipend and attend workshops and seminars on the Austrian, Virginia, and Bloomington schools of political economy. It is a total award of up to $10,000 for the year. The application deadline is March 15, 2014.

I used to threaten my colleagues that when I retired I’d return as a PhD student.

Norman PfysterJanuary 6, 2014 at 8:13 pm

Admit it, you just love baiting prior_approval.

JWattsJanuary 6, 2014 at 9:39 pm

Bonus points if the fellowship is funded by a rich conservative.

CarelessJanuary 6, 2014 at 11:15 pm

I suppose we haven’t seen him yet since his mouth foam destroyed his keyboard.

ttJanuary 6, 2014 at 10:01 pm

i have long been a supporter of the human fund.

prior_approvalJanuary 6, 2014 at 11:50 pm

‘Virginia school of political economy?’

Which is a thing that costs so little to develop (starting around 1985, if Mason PR is to be believed). It is even all inclusive, such as including people who never had anything to do with a Virginia school be part of it – ‘Mancur Olson founded modern research on collective action and special interest groups. Olson was not at GMU, Virginia, or Virginia Tech, but Virginia scholars tend to emphasize special interest group bias in government.’ The irony of those last six words is delicious, in the light of the purpose of the announced fellowships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_school_of_political_economy

Such a term makes me feel old – we just used to call it ‘public choice economics.’ Of course, that was just before Henry Manne brought his own particular academic contributions to the hallowed halls of an old department store in Arlington.

And just around the time that considering Mason a ‘Virginia school’ was being submerged by a steady flow of funds not originating from Til Hazel’s keen sense of how to make Northern Virginia a valuable real estate play. Though obviously, Mason’s Arlington campus was perfectly located for anyone interested in emphasizing the bias of special interest groups.

Joseph WardJanuary 7, 2014 at 11:49 am

I thought most economic schools of thought were based on proximity of ideas and not actual geography.

I’m definitely used to it being called Public Choice, rather than the Virginia School of Political Economy (and is the Bloomington School of Political Economy really a thing?), but this seems very worked up over what…

prior_approvalJanuary 7, 2014 at 12:25 pm

Well, when I was paid to write press releases for GMU, the term ‘Virginia school of economics’ was only being coined it seems, and completely overshadowed by whatever term Prof. Buchanan preferred. I don’t believe in any of the conversations he had with anyone in the PR dept. until the early 1990s, he ever referred to a ‘Virginia school of economics.’

deariemeJanuary 7, 2014 at 11:33 am

“the hallowed halls of an old department store in Arlington”: that sort of academic snobbery seems a bit rich to me, for a country where all the universities are only a metaphorical five minutes old.

prior_approvalJanuary 7, 2014 at 12:45 pm

Sorry, it is the exact opposite – I grew up in northern Virginia, and actually have a few memories of Kann’s Department Store – expecially of its escalator – as a four or five year old. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kann's )

And just a decade or two later, I worked at GMU in several departments, including PR. We just took down the Swedish elf tree ornament I was given by a certain Australian in late 1986 / early 1987 – unlike the Nobel prizes, the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is awarded not in Norway, but in Sweden. One of those little distinctions I know about first hand, even though it was not to be highlighted while GMU paid my wages.

Nice to see that someone at least found ‘hallowed halls’ derisory – because in all honesty, I just can’t get rid of those childhood memories of looking at the model kits just under the lowest level escalator. Which was still there when I was an GMU employee, paid to make Dean Manne’s vision look attractive.

BaphometJanuary 7, 2014 at 1:22 pm

All Nobel prizes except the peace prize are awarded in Sweden. They are Swedish prizes. Alfred Nobel was a Swede. From Sweden, not Norway.

prior_approvalJanuary 7, 2014 at 2:30 pm

Nope – the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. However, you are right in a broader sense – the other orginal Nobel Prizes are awarded in Sweden. My mistake, admittedly – considering the history of the Nobel fortune and his desire to award prizes, I just checked where the Peace Prize is awarded, and mistakenly assumed all the original Nobel prizes were awared in Oslo.

Sorry to have offended any Swedes with my mistake. And it isn’t as if GMU ever bought any actual scientific talent to associate itself with a real Nobel Prize anyways.

Joseph WardJanuary 7, 2014 at 1:40 pm

So why the hatred for GMU? Was it a bad parting or the Koch thing or what?

prior_approvalJanuary 7, 2014 at 2:43 pm

Have you ever heard me write anything derisory about GMU, except in connection with such luminaries as S. Fred Singer or Dean Manne? Or the Econ Dept., of course.

Not being constricted to write the sort of fairy tales such as the silly idea that MRU was just an example of modern synergy using youtube, a couple of GMU profs, and a $4 app is really quite enjoyable.

After all, I never actually believed anyone was dumb enough to consider such PR to be real when I was writing it, even if everyone I worked with pretended such fantasy to be worthwhile – at least to outsiders. Among ourselves, we weren’t exactly charitable towards those we were deceiving. Especially when talking about what we knew to be true.